BHAGAVAD GITA
Conversation 5. The Yoga of Renunciation/Actions
Arjuna said:
O Krishna, You praise transcendental knowledge
And also performance of unattached action.
Tell me, definitely, which one is better of the two.
Krishna said:
Karma-Samnyasa, and Karma-yoga
Both lead to the Supreme.
But, of the two, Karma-yoga
Is superior to Karma-Samnyasa.
A person should be considered a true Samnyasi
Or renunciant who neither likes nor dislikes.
Because, free from the dualities, O Arjuna,
One is easily liberated from bondage.
The ignorant, not the wise, consider Karma-Samnyasa
And Karma-yoga as different from each other.
The person who has truly mastered one,
Gets the benefits of both.
Whatever goal a Samnyasi reaches,
A Karma-yogi also reaches the same goal.
One who sees the path of renunciation
And the path of work as the same, really sees.
But Samnyasa, O Arjuna,
Is difficult to attain without Karma-yoga.
A Karma-yogi sage quickly attains Brahman.
A Karma-yogi whose mind is pure,
Whose mind and senses are under control,
And who sees one and the same Self in all beings,
Is not bound though engaged in work.
A Samnyasi who knows the truth thinks:
I do nothing at all.
For in seeing, hearing, touching, smelling,
Eating, walking, sleeping, breathing; and
Speaking, giving, taking,
opening and closing the eyes,
A Samnyasi believes that only the senses
Are operating upon their sense objects.
One who does all work
As an offering to the Lord,
Abandoning attachment to the results,
Is as untouched by sin
As a lotus leaf is untouched by water.
A Karma-yogi performs action
By body, mind, intellect, and senses,
Without attachment,
Only for self-purification.
A Karma-yogi, abandoning the fruit of work,
Attains Supreme Bliss while others,
Who are attached to the fruits of work,
Become bound by selfish work.
A person who has subdued the senses
And completely renounced all works,
Dwells happily in the City of Nine Gates,
Neither performing nor directing action.
The Lord neither creates the urge for action
Nor the feeling of doership
Nor the attachment to the results of action.
All these are done by the Gunas.
The Lord does not take
The good or evil deeds of anybody.
The knowledge is covered by ignorance,
Thereby people are deluded.
But their knowledge,
Whose ignorance is destroyed by Self-knowledge,
Reveals the Supreme like the sun.
They, whose mind and intellect
Are absorbed in the Self,
Who remain firmly attached with the Self,
Who have Self as their supreme goal,
whose sins have been destroyed by the knowledge,
Do not take birth again.
An enlightened person
Looks at a learned and humble Braahmana,
An outcast, even a cow, an elephant,
Or a dog with an equal eye.
Everything has been accomplished in this very life
By those whose mind is set in equality.
Such a person has realized Brahman
Because Brahman is flawless and impartial.
One who neither rejoices
On obtaining what is pleasant
Nor grieves on obtaining the unpleasant,
Who is undeluded, who has a steady mind,
And who is a knower of Brahman;
Such a person abides in Brahman.
A person whose mind is unattached to sensual pleasures,
Who discovers the joy of the Self,
And whose mind is in union with Brahman
Through meditation, enjoys eternal bliss.
Pleasures derived from the contact of senses
With their objects are verily the source of misery,
And have a beginning and an end.
The wise, O Arjuna, do not rejoice in sensual pleasures.
One who is able to withstand
The impulse of lust and anger before death
Is a yogi, and a happy person.
One who finds happiness with the Self,
Who rejoices the Self within,
And who is illuminated by the Self-knowledge;
Such a yogi becomes one with Brahman
And attains supreme nirvana.
Seers whose sins are destroyed,
Whose doubts have been dispelled by knowledge,
Whose disciplined minds are attached with the Self,
And who are engaged in the welfare of all beings
Attain Supreme Brahman.
A Self-realized person
Who is free from lust and anger,
And who has subdued the mind and senses
Wasily attains nirvana.
Renouncing sense enjoyments;
Fixing the eyes and mind at the midbrows;
Equalizing the breath moving through the nostrils
With senses, mind, and intellect under control;
Having liberation as the prime goal;
Free from lust, anger, and fear;
Such a sage is verily liberated.
The one who knows Me
As the enjoyer of sacrifices and austerities,
As the great Lord of all the worlds,
And as the friend of all beings, attains peace.
This is the end of Chapter V of the Bhagavad Gita
Entitled "Karma-Samnyasa-Yoga,"
Or "The Yoga of Renunciation of Action"
Entitled "Karma-Samnyasa-Yoga,"
Or "The Yoga of Renunciation of Action"